The authorities said that the Los Angeles police fatally shot a 14-year-old girl in a clothes store dressing room Thursday when cops fired on an assault suspect, and a bullet traveled through the wall and struck the girl.

Police also fatally shot the suspect Thursday morning at a Burlington store in the North Hollywood area of the San Fernando Valley, police said.

Witnesses said KCBS-TV that a guy began acting erratically, threatening to hurl stuff from the upper floor, and attacked a woman with a bicycle lock shortly before noon while the store was busy with holiday shoppers.

The authorities said that officers answered a report of an assault and others of bullets being fired. Investigators have not located firearms at the scene.

The guy was shot and died at the store, but one of the bullets went through drywall behind the man and killed the girl in a changing room with her mother, police said.

Officers found the teenager dead after discovering a breach in "a solid wall that you can't see behind," LAPD Assistant Chief Dominic Choi said.

Investigators didn't immediately know if she was in the changing room when the assault began or rushed in there to hide, he said.

"This chaotic incident resulting in the death of an innocent child is tragic and devastating for everyone involved," Police Chief Michel Moore said in a statement late Thursday night. "I am profoundly sorry for the loss of this young girl's life and I know there are no words that can relieve the unimaginable pain for the family."

Moore vowed a "thorough, complete and transparent investigation" into the shooting and said a critical incident video that would contain 911 calls, body camera, and another video will be available by Monday.

The names of the girl and the offender weren't immediately revealed, and the woman who was attacked is not being identified.

Investigators were trying to ascertain whether the assault was random or targeted. Choi said they don't believe the adolescent was related to the attacked individual.

Police found a large metal cable lock beside the suspect, Choi said.

Attorney General Rob Bonta said that the California Department of Justice was investigating the shooting.

News reports showed a woman with a bloodied face, who appeared to be the assault victim, being placed in an ambulance.

Fire Department representative Nicholas Prange said that the guy was rushed to the hospital with moderate to critical injuries. Choi stated she suffered wounds to her head, arms, and face.

The incident echoed a July 21, 2018, confrontation in which LAPD cops inadvertently shot and killed a woman at a Trader Joe's grocery. Officers got into an altercation with a man who authorities claim shot his grandmother and girlfriend before leading police on a drive that stopped when he crashed his car outside the market.

A police bullet killed Melyda Corado, 27, the assistant store manager, as she hurried toward the business's entrance after hearing the car crash.

Authorities said that the perpetrator, Gene Evin Atkins, took employees and shoppers hostage for three hours before surrendering.

Atkins has pled not guilty to the killing.

Prosecutors found two police officers behaved lawfully when they returned Atkins' gunfire.